Hutom

Hutom is a medical technology company founded in 2017 by surgeon Dr. Woo Jin Hyung, who serves as the CEO. The company is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. Dr. Hyung, a professor at Yonsei University College of Medicine and chief of upper gastrointestinal surgery at Severance Hospital, was motivated by his surgical experience to address the performance gap among surgeons by leveraging AI and big data. He performed the first robotic gastric surgery in South Korea in 2005 and recognized that digital technology could help standardize surgical outcomes.

The company has developed an AI-powered surgical platform that provides a "Total Surgical Patient Care solution" to assist surgeons pre-operatively, intra-operatively, and post-operatively. Its core product, RUS (Reshaping and Unraveling Surgery), is a surgical navigation platform that uses AI to convert 2D CT images into interactive 3D anatomical models. This technology supports surgeons in planning procedures and provides real-time navigation during operations. The platform includes patented technologies for automatic organ segmentation, calibration of veins and arteries, and modeling to predict abdominal changes during surgery. Hutom's platform is comprised of three main components: RUS for 3D visualization, ViHub for surgical video data analysis, and SurgGram for post-operative review.

Hutom serves the healthcare market, targeting surgeons and hospitals. In May 2024, the company entered into a co-promotion agreement with Johnson & Johnson MedTech Korea to expand the use of its RUS platform for gastric and kidney cancer surgeries in the country. The company has received significant funding, including a Series B round of $14.3 million in January 2022 from investors such as IMM Investment, Samsung Venture Investment, and KB Investment. The platform has gained regulatory approvals, including a Class II device approval from South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in 2021 and FDA 510(k) clearance for 'RUS Stomach' in the U.S.

Keywords: surgical AI, medical imaging, 3D surgical mapping, surgical navigation, healthcare technology, surgical video analysis, preoperative planning, intraoperative navigation, medical software, robotic surgery, laparoscopic surgery, partial nephrectomy, gastric surgery, oncology, digital surgery, medical devices, health-tech, surgical intelligence, anatomical modeling, computer-assisted surgery